Ferrari: Car restorers eager for orders

Tim Foate and Gavin Tindell built a replica 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO. Photo / Supplied

Tim Foate and Gavin Tindell joke that if push comes to shove, summer is the best time to be unemployed.

Coachbuilder Tindell says his next job might have him asking: "Do you want fries with that?"

Mechanic Foate isn't sure what he's going to do either.

But both men hope that the project they and chassis builder Dale Stevens have been working on for almost two years will open new job doors.

It ends next week when they ship a replica 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO to its owner in Britain, a rich ex-patriate Kiwi who has been paying them fortnightly for the past 22 months.

The Ferrari was on show at the classic car festival at Ellerslie last Sunday and is having its final spit and polish this week.

"There are replicas and there are replicas," said Tindell, "but we believe what we have done is an accurate recreation of one of Ferrari's greatest cars."

Adds Foate, who once worked for the car-nut owner in Britain: "He is very pleased. He is quick to tell you what he doesn't like; perhaps not as quick to say what he likes.

"But he's driven it here and he will use it in Britain. It won't just sit around to be admired - it will be used."

Tindell, 36, Foate, 28, and Stevens, 36, joined forces in a workshop on Auckland's North Shore after the ex-pat Kiwi shipped a wrecked Ferrari 330 GT and its powertrain to be used as the donor car.

The three started from the ground up, using only a section of chassis rails from the 330 GT. Tindell did the aluminium bodywork, Foate rebuilt the four-litre V12 engine and four-speed gearbox and brakes and Stevens did the spaceframe chassis and suspension.

"Most of the work was done in-house and we used a couple of engineers in Auckland for the special stuff," said Foate.

"But with some stuff it was vital to get it from overseas. The windscreen is from overseas. It fitted perfectly."

Modern safety regulations demanded that they make a couple of changes - but they aren't visible. The fuel tank had to have a bladder and the large fuel filler cap needed a screw cap underneath.

What about anti-lock brakes? "No, the brakes are single-circuit," said Foate. "They are not even double-circuit like old Holdens and Falcons. If the first push on the brakes doesn't work, that's it."

The replica runs wishbone and coil suspension up front and a leaf set-up with coils at the rear, typical 1960s Ferrari technology.

The 250 GTO has been described as Ferrari's "masterpiece" and an original is one of the most sought-after cars in the world, worth many millions of dollars.

It was designed to compete in GT racing. Only 39 were built between 1962-64 - 36 with a three-litre V12 engine and three with a four-litre V12, sometimes called the "330 GTO" and good for about 300kW. The three-litre used a five-speed manual gearbox, the four-litre a four-speeder. Regulations in 1962 required at least 100 cars to be built in order for it to be homologated for GT events. But it is said that Ferrari got round the rules by numbering its chassis out of sequence, using jumps between each to suggest cars that didn't exist.

US racing identity Carroll Shelby, one of Ferrari's many rivals in the 1960s, said founder Enzo Ferrari would stop at nothing in the pursuit of victory. "I remember once, when he thought we might beat him, he managed to get the race cancelled," said Shelby.

The 250 GTO made its first appearance in 1962 at the Sebring 12-hour race driven by the-then Formula One champion, American Phil Hill. It finished second behind a Ferrari Testa Rossa.